Enchanting, Earthy Ecuador

June 14, 2025

Greetings Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Honestly, Ecuador has been like a dream. We went in with a rough itinerary (hotels, activities we wanted to do), and our INCREDIBLE guide, Tomas, made it all happen so seamlessly and with a lot of the flexibility that our family needs, especially at this point in our long adventure. Edwin drove us anywhere we needed to go. For the last four days, we’ve been staying in the home of Luis and Charito Timpe, who live on a sprawling farm in Patate and are essentially treating us like family.

One thing that has been abundantly clear to us is how much tourism here in Ecuador is struggling. Our hotels in Quito, Mindo, and Otavalo were practically empty. I remember when we were discussing visiting Ecuador a couple of years ago, we, too, were fearful that the violence in areas such as Guayaquil could make it more dangers to travel here. And… at no point during our time here in Ecuador have we felt at all unsafe. People are friendly, warm, and welcoming. Children smile and greet my children. They graciously tolerate my cobbled together Spanish. Anyways, we love it here. Please come visit.

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap

Mindo Cloud Forest

May 31^st: Jonah, Calla, Tomas, Edwin, and I departed La Cultura Manor bright and early to avoid traffic and headed to Yanacocha Reserve. The Reserve protects a small piece of the cloud forest and is located on Pichincha’s volcano. We were surprised to find ourselves at high elevation again (11,300ft) and noticed getting winded more quickly during our 3-mile round trip hike. While Jonah hoped to see more spectacled bears, alas, it was not to be. We did, however, see lots of beautiful birds.

Mindo Valley is the gateway to Ecuador’s Cloud Forest and is particularly well known for its biodiversity and bird watching. While we’d hoped to get to the Amazon on this trip, it ended up being too much to manage both financially and logistically, and we thought this would allow for another unique animal experience at a more accessible location.

We ate a packed lunch in the car and continued our long drive to Mindo. Before arriving in town, we stopped at a hummingbird reserve, where the kids held sweetened nectar in bottle tops in an attempt to have the birds come visit their hands. The backdrop of pouring rain and the speed of the birds gave the entire experience a frenetic energy that at the same time, managed to provide a deep sense of calm. I loved it.

Next, we visited El Quetzal, yet another chocolate factory. While we were waiting for our tour to start, we read the welcome sign that said, among other things, “Best Cup of Chocolate in the World – Bronze Medal.” Well, that settled that. Hot chocolates were procured for all, where the kids discovered that “real” hot chocolate tends to be bitter. Arguments ensued over how much sugar Calla was allowed to add to her cup. I said one spoonful. She said all the spoonfuls. We probably landed somewhere in between.

Miguel gave us a tour of the grounds, where we spotted agoutis. These are like tiny capybaras (or giant hamsters), and we first saw them back in Bolivia. I was also amazed to see varieties of trees that produced insulin and iodine, in addition to the standard trees and plants such as cacao, coffee, and grapefruit. We sampled a few varieties of chocolate, and then were served the best brownies we’ve ever had. They were incredibly moist, and available for online ordering with international shipping. Kirkland friends who want in when we return, let us know.

At long last, we checked into our hotel, La Terrazas de Dana, where I declared that I was going to change in pajama pants and not leave my room until the next day. We ordered room service and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

June 1^st: Given that it’s been raining heavily in the late afternoons, we wanted to get an early start to maximize our chances of enjoying the outdoors. We first went to Mindo Canopy Adventure for a ten zipline adventure. Calla mostly went tandem with one of the instructors, and all of us really enjoyed sailing through the treetops. Jonah wasn’t feeling very well, so we dropped him off back at the hotel while Tomas took Calla and me to the butterfly garden. This place was so much fun, and Calla had a blast putting tiny bits of banana on her fingers and trying to get the butterflies to land on her. After about an hour, my stomach was screaming at me, so we headed out to a local restaurant for lunch, where I ate a delicious quinoa burger with cocoa BBQ sauce. The plan was to have some down time back at the hotel to rest and then head back out to bird watch. Once back at the room (and reunited with Jonah, for whom I’d room serviced a ham and cheese sandwich since he wasn’t responding to my emails and is staunchly anti-veggie burger), it quickly became clear that bird watching wasn’t going to happen as the downpour was torrential. So, I napped, the kids used their assorted devices.

Around 6:30pm, we headed back out for a night walk. Friends, this means I paid $65 for the pleasure of trekking through the muddy forest with head lamps, an ornery teen, and an over tired 5-year old insisting she wasn’t tired, just hungry because she didn’t have dinner even though she’d eaten dinner right before leaving the hotel (and still more dinner in the car) while a man pointed out assorted giant spiders lurking in the deep, dark crevices of the trees. Money well spent! (Ok, but it was actually pretty cool. We even saw a tiny glass frog before it hopped away.)

June 2^nd: Our plan today was to take the Tarabita cable car to the 7 waterfalls hike in the Waterfall Sanctuary. As we’ve enjoyed several cable car rides on this trip, we had a pretty good idea what to expect. Except, we absolutely did not. This was more of an open-sided yellow metal contraption on two parallel lines that felt more like a seated zipline than a cable car. Once beginning the hike, I was kicking myself for opting for sneakers over my hiking shoes; the trail was muddy and consisted in large part of steps going up….and then steps going back down. We visited five of the waterfalls before deciding to head back, in a hike that I deemed “short to medium,” Jonah deemed “medium,” and Calla deemed “medium to long.” The kids were hungry, so I ordered them nuggets and fries from the on site café, which reminded me of something I would have bought for lunch back in middle school. We briefly stopped in town to pick up our laundry, and I went to look for a green smoothie for lunch. Instead I came back with three popsicles. One of them was filled with dulce de leche. I regret nothing.

Back at our hotel, Calla and I attempted a visit to the hotel pool, but decided it was too cold. We then ventured out for an afternoon of bird watching, where we spotted three types of tanagers and several hummingbirds, plus several more adorable agoutis. Tomas and Jonah continued with their many high level conversations about animals, whereas I made several profound observations such as, “I like the green bird.” As an aside, one thing that has been really cool about our world trip is that Jonah is getting to meet so many animal expert guides; this gives him lots of examples of different career trajectories. Tomas also works on animal documentaries and is about to head to the Amazon. If Jonah wasn’t so eager to go back to Kirkland, I think he would have snuck into Tomas’ suitcase and joined him.

At any rate, Calla said she was really tired, so I took her to take a nap back in the van. She completely conked out, and I let her sleep until after we arrived at dinner, ordered her food, and had food on the table. The original plan was to go to a frog concert. I was weirdly excited about this. Did I intellectually understand that this wasn’t going to be a bunch of frogs standing on bleachers in tiny tuxedos? Yes, yes I did. Is that still what I pictured every single time the term “frog concert” came up when discussing our trip to Mindo? Absolutely. Alas, the concert was not meant to be. Calla was just too tired, so we decided to skip it and head back early to our hotel. 

June 3^rd: Our final morning in Mindo, we drove back to the bird watching site to see if we could catch a glimpse of the elusive toucan. We didn’t, but we did see one en route when driving! The plan was to head to Otavalo by way of Quito, stopping to pick up Justin and Simon along the way. Happily reunited, we continued along our way.

Otavalo

Otavalo is in Northern Ecuador and is primarily known for its textiles made by indigenous people. But before we got there, our first stop was to get Bizcochos in Cayambe. We feared these would be like biscotti, which no one likes, but not at all. They are made in small ovens and are crispy but with a more biscuit-like flavor. Our host served them with dulce de leche and cheese. Yum. We also tried some agave, as well as some agave jams with ginger and one with passion fruit and chili (our favorite).

We continued on to check into our hotel, Hacienda Cusin. There were calla lilies everywhere – in the garden, on a painting in our room. While calla lilies are not native to Ecuador, they apparently grow everywhere around the Andes. It was a welcome treat to spot them so many times. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of our newsletter, you’ll see my favorite Calla posing with my favorite callas.

We drove into town to drop our laundry and visited a couple of weaving shops. Then we came back to the hotel to relax before having dinner. The food here was spectacular.

June 4^th: Today we visited the famous Otavalo Market! I’ve been so excited to visit here despite concerns that it has become too commercial over the last several years. We strolled around for a couple of hours and found some unique items. That said, there were also tons and tons of synthetically made ponchos, hats, etc., that we decided to just skip purchasing that entire category of item. We ended up returning to one of the weaving shops from the day before to purchase a couple of items we’d been debating, but wanted to hold off until we explored the market.

 In the evening, we visited the home of one of Tomas’ friends, Tua, for an evening of “Pachamanca,” meaning “earth pot” in Quechua. More than just cooking, Pachamanca is a celebration of nature, the earth, food, and community. cooking and storytelling. We first helped move hot stones into a giant hole (i.e., the “oven”) in the ground, and then we buried the ingredients in the land, including potatoes, plantains, and chicken, topped it with cabbage and banana leaves, and scooped dirt on top. We were all given a handful of flower petals (representing that we can live in beauty) and asked to consider what we were thankful for (either silently or aloud) and then throw the flower petals onto the oven. The dirt was also decorated with a staff (connection between earth and sky), and condor, eagle, and macaw feathers. While our meal was cooking, our hosts played music while we danced, and then Tua told a story about how the dogs came to Ecuador. The kids (or, you know, Simon and Calla) were super engaged in the storytelling, hanging on Tua’s every word, and interjecting their own commentary. Finally, it was time to dig up our meal. Everything was delicious, and I particularly loved the ingredients that had been charred black by the stones – the corn here has larger kernels and is crunchier, and I delighted in the crispy bits on the plantains. After dinner, our kids started playing with Tua’s kids, and we practically had to drag them out of there. Calla fell asleep in the van, and Justin carried her straight into the hotel room bed.

June 5^th: A very busy day here in Otavalo! We began with a walk to the Peguche Waterfall. This was a brief visit, but the waterfall was pretty, and its symbolic in that it was used ritualistically by native peoples.

After, we headed to the Condor Park. This was the clear highlight for Jonah and Simon. First, we watched a flight display with various birds of prey (hawks, eagles, owls), and each the kids held an American kestrel. Then we walked around to see the other animals on display. Many of the species there were rescued from abusive or inhospitable environments.

My favorite was the adorable spectacled owl. The kids picked up some sandwiches on site so we could continue with our busy day out. Next up was a visit to Cotocachi, a nearby town known for its leather making. At this point, we’d sort of determined that we might need to ship another box home, which is how we accidentally both ended up purchasing leather jackets. Finally, we headed to Laguna Cuicocha for a short hike. “HIKE?!” cried all the kids. They gave us knife eyes. All in all, the “hike” took about 20 minutes and we only made them take two or three pictures before heading back to the van. 

We drove back to Otavalo; three cheers to Tomas for his willingness to head all the way back to the Condor Park to pick up Jonah’s left behind jacket so our tired family could get some down time before dinner.

We ate dinner at the hotel, where I had an extended “channeling my dad” moment upon discovering that the three course prix fix menu was inexplicably more expensive than ordering the same three items à la carte. I tried to explain this to the waitstaff, that even accounting for VAT and service, it was cheaper to order à la carte. The language barrier created challenges. I couldn’t stop laughing. My kids thought it was hysterical. Justin thought I was being absurd. Since it seemed unhelpful to continue pressing the point with the hotel, instead I kept trying to explain the math to Simon and Jonah. It was a hill I was willing to die on despite it not mattering at all. My dad would have been proud; we still paid for the prix fix meal as ordered.

June 6^th: Two hours. This is how long we spent at DHL en route to Cotopaxi. Remember when I said back in Sydney that we were all done sending packages home? That was a lie. But this time we super-duper mean it. Other exciting things that happened before we left Otavalo: We picked up our laundry, we stopped at the ATM, and we ordered sandwiches.

Cotopaxi

We are staying on a working ranch adjacent to Cotopaxi National Park called Hacienda Porvenir. El Porvenir is surrounded by four volcanos, and we can see Cotopaxi from the windows of our rooms. When we arrived in the late afternoon, we were treated to spiked tea (adults only) and empanadas. Despite the rain, Calla and I took ourselves on a brief outdoor tour, discovering a small swing set and lots of horses. There is also a ropes course.

After a long day of travel, everyone was feeling tired, so we rested while the kids watched a movie before enjoying dinner in the downstairs restaurant.

June 7^th: Today we visited Cotopaxi National Park. Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in Ecuador. While summiting was out of the question for our family, Tomas led us on a really scenic hike around the volcano where we did not see another soul until the very end, when we stumbled upon a picnicking family. While the terrain was mostly flat, the hike was technically quite hard. For one thing, we were at an altitude of approximately 3900 meters above sea level. This means I found myself huffing and puffing through paths that ordinarily would not even result in me breaking a sweat. Second, it was extremely windy out, particularly towards the very end of our hike. We were walking along a dirt road, and even with sunglasses on, we all had dirt going in our eyes and mouths. At several points, we guided the kids in walking backwards so they weren’t directly facing the wind. It was loud, and my ears ached for a few hours even after we were back in the van. The scenery was captivating; sparse, yet stunning, like something out of an old Spanish western. There were patches of tall grass that we occasionally tried to forge our way through. All in all, we hiked about five miles, ending at a small lake, before heading to a late lunch. Back in the car, Calla told us she wanted to take a nap, and then pulled her ear band immediately over her eyes like, “hush, discussion over.” (We had to wake both her and Simon upon arriving at the restaurant.) We had a lazy evening back at the hotel as the kids read and played and I went for a massage.

June 8^th: Today we visited El Sinche, a local farm, in what can only be described as the perfect day out in Ecuador. Upon arrival at the farm, we were treated to tea and cheese-filled crispy pastries. We explored a bit, and I made the kids put on cowboy hats and take photos next to the animal skin rug. (Simon also wore one of the hats for a couple of hours in the afternoon, at which point I reminded him of the year-ish long stretch when he was around two where he wore a blue fedora literally everywhere, including all day at daycare.)

Then we headed outside, where we made cucayo (a snack made from corn, fava beans, and potatoes). The farm had a small playground with a treehouse and a giant tire swing, as well as a swing set with a swing made from a horse’s saddle. Everyone enjoyed playing for a while, and then it was time to go inside and make farmer’s cheese. We learned how to press the liquid out of the cheese and shaped the curds into molds. While they were setting, we headed back outside, where we discovered endless rows of calla lilies. Next up was a visit to feed the sheep the fava bean pods. Calla, especially, got really into it, naming one of the sheep “Pal” and giving it a very nice meal. Then we headed to the chicken coop to feed the chickens and collect eggs. Tomas showed Jonah how to catch a chicken to hold, and Jonah spent considerable time trying to emulate him. It was hysterical.

The kids got very attached to the eggs they collected. Each one insisted on carrying one around, to which I reminded them that no one brought a change of clothes. (Joke’s on all of us; Calla returned to our hotel with cow poop all over her shirt. We should probably own stock in OxyClean at this point.) It was starting to feel very “middle school home ec project;” eggs were named Omelet, Alfredo, and Frederick, and we finally convinced the kids to put them down to help with some planting. They were disappointed to learn that an egg – in any form – was unlikely to clear customs.

We headed back to the cheese room to flip our molds and then went outside for a snack of fresh cheese and cayuco. Next up was horseback riding! Calla and Simon really enjoyed riding when we were in Italy, but Jonah didn’t have any interest. Today, though, he was willing to give it a try and surprised himself by enjoying riding.  

The kids hung out in the playground for a bit longer before returning inside to roll out bread. While the bread was baking, we ate potato soup with various toppings: chulpi (Ecuadorian toasted corn), lupinis, pork, chicharrónes, avocado, boiled eggs, and plantains, as well as some of that yummy cheese. The kids were given ice cream, which they enjoyed until it was time to milk the cows.

The whole day was just so much fun. The kids were elated and played really well together the entire time. Everyone just loves being out in nature, eating good food, and trying new activities. It was also Tomas’s last day with us, and we were all really sad to say goodbye to him. He’s been such a good guide for our family, super involved with the kids. At this point in our trip, Justin and I are exhausted. We’ve been moving more quickly through South America than we did through previous continents, and we’ve generally had less down time as well as less kid-free time.

June 9th: We finally took advantage of the activities at El Porvenir, and attended both a lasso class and the attempted the ropes course. Only Jonah and Justin took to the former; I ended up bringing Calla and Simon back inside pretty quickly. After being harnessed and helmeted, in the late afternoon the five of us ventured to the ropes course. This was…. much higher and more perplexing up close than it looked from afar. By “more perplexing” what I mean is “where in the world are we supposed to put our feet?!” Ever the go getter, Calla wanted to go first, and she climbed the short ladder to tackle the lower ropes course. Simon soon followed. As they were scampering across, Jonah climbed the giant ladder to attempt the high ropes course. He’d left his sweater back in the room, and he quickly declared he was too cold to keep going. He made it across two of the obstacles before being billeted down which, to be fair, was two more than I attempted. Justin - never one to back down from a challenge, particularly one we’ve all punked out of - did the entire high ropes course. Even though I did nothing, as head Family Cheerleader, I declared hot chocolates x 5 were in order following our cold adventure in ropes courses. I don’t know what voodoo magic El Porvenir puts in their cocoa (and they wouldn’t tell me) but it was probably the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. There was definitely cinnamon, and - inexplicably - a small side of shredded mozzarella which worked much better than it had any right to.

June 10th: We checked out of El Porvenir and headed to Patate, which is about 30 minutes outside of Baños. Our travel agent for South America, Jennifer, kindly connected us with her friend, Carolina, whose parents, Luis and Charito own a sprawling farm here. Upon arrival, we were served avocado soup, steak, rice, and veggies. Calla discovered a giant toy box filled to the brim with the grandchildren’s toys.

Later, Luis showed us around the grounds, where we sampled oranges and tangerines, and then took us into town to explore. As you can see, Calla was keen to baby wear.

We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon and evening back at the farm with our welcoming hosts.

June 11^th: Today is fruit picking day, so we huddled up in the back of the tractor trailer and drove into the orchards to pick limons and tangerines, as well as gather fallen avocados. Calla deemed herself the “Tangerine Queen,” sitting in the back of tractor abrkign orders at everyone, telling us to bring her tangerines “stat.” She called me the Tangerine Princess, if there was any further doubt who was really in charge of this whole operation. It was hot out, and the picking process was both strenuous and enjoyable; I appreciated the monotony and routine. Unsurprisingly, we have confirmed our children are completely unsuited for manual labor. They were hot! They were tired! There were too many prickly thingies in the bushes!

One silly challenge here in South America is that, more or less, we are not big lunch people. This is the opposite of the way its done in South America. While I am willing to be a big lunch person for the sake of not being a rude guest, this will also result in the immediate need to take a nap and the high likelihood that I won’t eat dinner. For the last two days, Charito has made incredible lunches, and I’ve not been able to make it much past the first course. (To be fair, I’ve also been battling a mild stomach bug.) Today at lunch, Calla finished most of her soup and then loudly and cheerfully announced, “Yay! Time for the whiskey!” We all looked at one another in confusion, before Calla opened up a nearby drawer, procured a whisk, and said it was time to stir her broth. Oh.

Later in the evening, we kicked around a soccer ball with two teenager neighbors, both of whom were much better players than the five of us. Then….marshmallow time.

June 12^th: Happy 16th anniversary to us! Our marriage is officially old enough to drive. We enjoyed a lovely family day out in nearby Baños with Luis and Charo. We began at Casa de Arbol, home to the swing at the end of the world. When we arrived, the view was cloudy, but over the course of an hour they sky opened up and the view was unreal. There was also a swing zipline, which was a new to us concept.

Then we went to an Animal Park, which had an eclectic mix of animals, activities, and my personal favorite, a real life display of Ellie’s unrealized dream.

Finally, we visited yet another chocolate shop because one can never visit too many chocolate shops. Thanks to our travel agent, Jennifer, for making it happen!

Later that evening, we let the kids roam free while we learned a new card game called Telefunken, which involves seven rounds of complex rules. Just when we thought we got them all down, a new rule was presented. Wine was poured. Spanish was translated. Somehow I managed to win.  

June 13^th: A month or so ago, I contacted the local tour company, GeoTours, about setting up some adventure activities for us in Baños. I was pleased to learn that Calla was big enough to do most of their advertised activities, so it was up to us to pick what we thought we’d all enjoy the most. I landed on ziplining - which we’ve all done several times and love - and paragliding, which no one had done before. We left around 9am, and for some reason, I felt nauseas after the car ride to Baños. Justin quickly purchased some nausea meds at the local pharmacy. Unfortunately, while this helped me feel better, it also made me incredibly sleepy to the point where I had to skip out on 2/3’s of the ziplining activity to lie down. Happily, everyone else had a phenomenal time. The six lines included two “superman” (or “superwomen,” as Calla said) style lines. Simon even hummed the theme song as he flew across the valley.

Afterwords, we walked around town and stopped for sandwiches at a chocolate café. Justin and I split what we told the kids was a coffee but was actually the most delicious mocha. Then we headed back to the GeoTours headquarters to meet our driver to take us to paragliding. We drove for about 45 minutes before getting to our destination. There, we met our pilot, and were briefed on safety regulations. Calla was given a smaller seat and attached to me. I was attached to the pilot, and off we flew! If you’re wondering, “Why, Sara, did you do yet another activity involving floating in a parachute when skydiving made you so nauseas?” the answer is, “pure willfulness.” Flying high above the ground was much calmer than I anticipated; I imagined it was similar to what it would feel like to be a bird. That said, when our pilot changed directions to fly with the wind, I definitely noticed a drop in my stomach. We were in the air for 10-15 minutes before we flew back down. Then Justin went up in the air. Given the wind currents, Jonah and Simon were grouped together, which seemed like a dicey choice, but it was either that or neither of them would get to go. Everyone really enjoyed the activity, and we were pleased that nerves didn’t get the best of us. Jonah compiled a fun video of us, the link to which you can find in his newsletter section.

We got back to the farm in time for dinner and were greeted with the most intoxicating smell: homemade apple pie. We raced through dinner so we could stuff our faces with what was probably the best apple pie I’ve ever had. The fact that I still had a small tub of dulce de leche hidden in our luggage helped.

June 14th: For our final day in Ecuador, we visited a local market, but mostly stuck close to home, packing, writing, working, and playing outside. Calla dragged all of her toys to the tire swing and made a little picnic. We picked a couple of fresh tangerines, and she declared that she wants to live here all the time. Before dinner, we played another rousing game of wine and Telefunken.

Our time in Patate has been such a lovely way to end our four weeks in Ecuador. We feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to stay with the Timpes, and greatly appreciated having someone cook and do laundry for us while we are on the road. We are certainly starting to feel the burnout from constant travel, and this was a nice way to reset.

Justin’s Soapbox

I'm glad that we've gotten to such a variety of places around Ecuador; Quito, the Galapagos, Otavalo, Mindo, Cotopaxi, and now the quaint valley of Patate. It's been nearly a month for us here, and I think Ecuador has proven to be one of the most memorable countries we've visited. Everything we've gotten to see and do here has been great, and I also think it provided the kids with a greater level of variety, which they were needing. We've also had some of our most memorable times speaking with locals in Ecuador, and I've felt less embarrassed about using my broken Spanish here than in prior countries. I should first acknowledge the fantastic and friendly work of our general guide Tomas Espinosa, who showed us around much of the country and who was not only extremely knowledgeable and helpful but was a great presence with the kids. They learned a lot from him on various hikes around the countryside and sojourns through the city, and while we probably proved to be a higher-maintenance lot than he was used to (what with our continual needs of finding places to do laundry, needing to send a big package home, and generally trying to upkeep ourselves beyond what tourists on a shorter trip would ), he went above and beyond to help us out. Some of his upcoming projects include working with documentary crews further east in the Amazon, and I wish him the best.

Tomas also put us in touch with his friend Tua, and we spent an evening in their home learning about the Pachamanca tradition of underground cooking (all best described above by Sara). As we've mentioned before, when we have had the opportunity to be guests in someone's home it has always proven to be the best of all worlds in terms of enjoyment. We're able to be more relaxed and have more genuine conversations with people, and the kids are on better behavior and often able to make quick friends with other young ones who may be around. At Tua’s house we had a great time working to make dinner together, hearing some music and stories, and generally hanging out into the evening while our respective set of kids played together in the yard.

But it's hard not to save my highest praise for Luis and Charito Timpe, who have graciously shared their home with us for the past four days in Patate. While they have had a few traveling families stay with them before, their place is not a lodge nor a bed-and-breakfast, but a simple (if well-stocked) home. To say that they have been welcoming is a massive understatement, this is more like being temporarily blessed with a new pair of grandparents, as it feels just like staying with close family. We've gone on outings together like to "the swing at the end of the world" and their local animal park, they've shown us around their orchard where we helped pick some fruit for the market, we've played cards in the evening, we've kicked a soccer ball around with their neighbors - it's all felt very familiar. And they've also generously cooked some fantastic meals for us including one of the best apple pies we've had in recent memory. It will be sad to leave Ecuador behind but I may end up missing Luis and Charito most of all.

Our first foray into paragliding is also still fresh in my mind, and is something I will probably want to do again as soon as I have the opportunity. To be honest I was pretty nervous going into it, as I'm not 100% devoid of any fear of heights, and having Sara and Calla go first brought back flashbacks of when Sara went skydiving. During that whole episode I was probably far more anxious on the ground waiting for her to come down safely than I would have been if I had decided to jump out of a plane as well. But once I got off the ground (or I should say, once my experienced tandem paraglider guide got us off the ground) I felt pretty good. Perhaps it's silly, but those first few seconds of my feet leaving the ground and then just being gently taken up by the wind really made an impression on me. The general feeling of being completely lifted by the wind alone is kind of magical, and being able to just hand in it, hundreds of feet up, was much more calming and serene than I expected. Would recommend!

My final kudos to Ecuador goes to its continually beautiful mountainous landscapes, here in the central region where we've spent most of our time. It's difficult to compare with some of the other natural wonders we've seen. New Zealand may have had some of the most majestic mountainous regions, and Atacama, Chile may have had some of the most unique. But our journey around Ecuador may have provided the most consistently beautiful ranges of rolling green hills, ancient crater walls, and towering volcanoes. Just about every window we look out of has something incredible out there in the background. 

With only a month left to go in the trip, our minds are turning towards returning to regular life back home in Kirkland. Happily, these are mostly positive thoughts for all of us. Sara and I are raring to get back to our careers, and the kids miss both the comforts and diversions of home. This is probably the only year in any of our lives where all three kids are looking forward to going back to (regular) school after the summer, so I'm trying to savor that for all its worth. The trip has been both exhausting and invigorating. We largely did what we did to break from our regular routines, and in doing so we've also managed to find a newfound appreciation for them. We'll be coming back with new ideas to make "normal life" better for all of us. We'll be back with a greater focus on our own friends and community, as well as plenty of road-tested ideas for how we can live life better as this odd family of five that we are. There's lots of complex thoughts and feelings to process about what we have or have not achieved on this trip, and how we all will ultimately feel about it, and I'll be writing more on that in the next installments. But I do think that as a whole, we're feeling a little more formidable. 

(Also, I think we have visited 43 different chocolate factory tours in Ecuador and if I have to go to another one I may lose it, but, I have now had the hands-down best hot chocolate in the world. Nobody does it like Ecuador!)

Jonah’s Musings

Ecuador has been one of the most beautiful places we’ve visited on this trip. We’ve visited all sorts of terrain such as cloud forests and rolling hills. The food here has also been excellent.

One of the coolest places that we went to was the Mindo Cloud Forest. Cloud forests are like jungles but colder and higher up. We did a night walk in the cloud forest and saw a lot of big spiders and some frogs. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anything too crazy. I thought

The food, as I said, was excellent. We went on a tour to a native family's home. We learned how to cook underground, a traditional South American way of cooking things in some areas. We did it by digging a hole, putting hot stones in it, and covering it with leaves. After that we put food in, potatoes, plantains, corn, and chicken. After that we covered it up in tarp and put dirt on it. 

We also did a hike in these amazing rolling hills. It was really beautiful, and we even saw white-tailed deer which are also native to North America. I also may or may not have stepped in a cow pie, lol. 

But one of my favorite experiences here in Ecuador was the farm tour. On this farm we did many things, but my favorite was interacting with the animals. Especially the chickens, we got to feed them straight from our hands, and we were also allowed to hold the chicken if you were fast enough. I was actually able to get one! We also fed the baby cows (calves) some milk. It was tough though as the calves were quite big and they kept pulling on the bottle.

Lassoing was also a fun activity that took a lot of practice and skill. We had to lasso a cow skull on some wood. I managed to get it from about 15 feet away, but I couldn't hit it from the stairs, which were roughly 20 feet away. It made me realize how hard it would be to lasso a cow while riding on a horse at full speed.

Paragliding in Banos was really fun. It wasn’t scary, but I felt pretty sick on it. The view was really nice. Here is our video:

Anyways, that's all for today, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel (formidablefiveworldwide) and follow our newsletter! See you in the next one!

Simon’s Reflection

This is about our time in Ecuador. Ecuador is in South America. We’ve been to many hotels, but the coolest was the one in Cotopaxi. They had a ropes course, a playground, and horses. On the ropes course, I was really, I had a bit of a hard time doing the small one while Calla was saying, “This is too easy!” on the small one. We also did a very big hike one day in Cotopaxi National Park. To my Mom, it mattered very much. The wind was so hard it blew the sand. The sand hit so hard it felt like bullets! I may never recover from that experience.

In Otavalo, we did underground cooking. It wasn’t really underground; just the food was underground. We did it at somebody’s house and the kids there were kicking around a bunch of paper that was on fire.( Mom didn’t let me join in; I was very sad. I wanted to kick around a ball of fire.) [Ed note: Simon is my 3^rd most trustworthy child].

Now we are staying in Patate. It was a very long drive there. When we got here, we were greeted by the people who live here. So far they have made such good food and they are really nice and their English is quite good. They live on a big farm. We picked fruit today. It was harder than I thought it would be. I thought we would pick berries but we picked fruit. We picked tangerines and limons (it’s a mixture of lemon and lime). 

My favorite thing in Ecuador was staying in Porvenir… so far!

Calla’s Corner

[Ed note: Emojis are Calla’s and Calla’s alone]

Mindo: So one day I did a lovely butterfly excursion 🦋 and it was so much fun. We got to find the baby butterflies in their little cocoons. There were many types of colors. It was pretty fun and really liked it. I got a bunch to land on my fingers and my whole body. Want to land on my tummy, my arm and my leg. So I got to have so much fun’. It was pretty nice there. It was so glorious. I cover that any gasoline kills them. Mommy: how did you discover that? Calla: the video. So I’m very sad at that I saw 2 dead butterflies and I didn’t really like it but I really was ok. So I liked the butterfly excursion bc we got to get bracelets. Jonah didn’t want to go. I wanted to come back later, but then I changed my mind so instead I went to the pool 🏊‍♀️  It was too cold. 🥶 

So I went to a chocolate factory. 🍫  We got some hot chocolate. It was very disgustingly bitter. 🤢  So we saw cocoa beans and we tasted them. It was raining that time. I liked playing with the umbrella. ☂️  At the chocolate factory we also did a nice lovely tour with the guide. Not the Tomas guide a different guide who belonged to the chocolate factory. At the air thing a shell blew into my eye. 👁️  And also it was very much to talk to you guys. I want to write a little more now too because blogs are fun. 🤩  When we were at the butterfly sanctuary Jonah, my big brother 👦, and he wouldn’t stop playing Minecraft while we were gone and he was on his computer. 💻️  [Ed note: I think he may have been making videos, but she is referring to the fact that we were having trouble reaching him while we were at lunch after the butterfly sanctuary and I kept saying, “he’s probably playing Minecraft and ignoring his email.” I ordered him a sandwich through room service and sent the hotel staff to check on him. All was fine.]

At Mindo we did a night hike. 😴  So at the night hike we saw a bunch of tarantulas 🕷️ 🕸️ and we also saw a tiny frog 🐸 . So it was very nice to see a tiny frog there. I’d never seen a tiny frog before. One looks like a little log in the water. 💧 My mom had to pick me up over the gooey, sloshy muddy part. After the gooey ushy muddy part we saw the biggest spider of all. I couldn’t go on the ooey slushy muddy part because none of the boots fit me right. Thank you everybody. I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. Please read it and please enjoy it.

Otavalo: So we went to an Otovalo market. And I got a present for my friends. 💝 👯 I got a calla lily picture just for myself and Jonah got a very nice wooden thing of a tiger face on it [Ed note: It was a jaguar].

Cotopaxi: So, I did a big hike one day and it was pretty windy. At first I was fine but in the middle of the hike I got a little woozy and wind and sand blew into my face and eyes. 😀 👀 

On the big hike Tomas, our guide, had some snacks for us. And there was popcorn, apples, and chips with hummus. We loved the popcorn, and he said, “What do you usually have for movies?” And we said, “popcorn!” and he said, “Let’s look inside” and he popped open the bag and there was popcorn standing in front of us! We gobbled some of it up and saved the rest for later. When we were done with the big hike, we went on a little hill and we met some friends. And we were done with the hike for that time of the day. Edwin, our driver, drove us there and it was pretty long. One time I threw a rock in Jonah’s face and I missed. It landed behind his back and Mom was pretty mad at me.

At one of our places [El Porvenir] there was candies and a box on a shelf that we always got to take one every day. And also there was a ropes course and an itsy bitsy park. We got to play there. Now let’s go to the ropes course part. On the ropes course … on the high one, there was bucket walks and all sorts of things. On the little one, there was little woo-ey things that was really hard and at the end one, there were ropes hanging down and we had to walk on the rope and hang onto the things, but don’t worry – if we fell, we’re going to be safe and we’ll always be strapped into the little line thing. So, thank you everybody. I hope you like the talk about the ropes course. Now it’s time to move onto the next one now…Patate. It’s going to be all fun and you’ll like it.

Patate: So, here at Patate it’s a kind of farm. Edwin drove us here. It was pretty long but not that long. At this place, they make the best food here. There’s a guy named Luis and Luis was taking us everywhere, like everywhere around the world! So, I’m going to tell you, it was a great day here. In my room I made a little play area for me. In the other room where the boys sleep I made a whole set up for myself. There’s a bunch of toys in there. They have grandkids here. I was putting on a dinosaur tattoo this morning, but it faded. I washed it off. I realized I didn’t want one anymore.

Outside, there was a little park-y area, and just a little ride-y horse and a little kids table. In my room there’s a little soccer ball and we get to play soccer. Thank you everybody for the blog today. I hope you enjoyed it. You can read it anytime you want. 3pm, 5pm, 6 hours. Any time you want! It will always be there for you on your phone, computer, tablet, or any kind of device.

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Mom’s note: Please enjoy a photo assortment of Calla with callas.

Next up: Lima and Cusco! We have just 31 days to go. We are marching with you all in spirit today.

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla